FAINITES

Sunday, 9 February 2014

A woman surnamed Zhang from Jinhua in east China's Zhejiang province told the paper [The People's Daily] that she was stunned when her hairdresser said that all the hair cut off from customers is purchased to make protein-rich soy sauce. "Making soy sauce? I was scared!" Zhang said.

A barber surnamed Liu said, "We did hear the rumor but I have never seen anyone use hair to make soy sauce." He added however that the myth goes further. "I even heard that it can be used to make medicine," Liu said.

"Some people come to buy discarded hair from our shop. Some hair that is complete and long is used to make wigs. As for the smaller pieces, I have no idea what it could be used for." He said the price of hair differs depending on its quality, but most of the hair purchased from his shop costs about 10 yuan (US$1.65) a kilo.

A food safety expert surnamed Shi told the paper that is indeed true that hair can be fermented to make soy sauce. However, Shi said this is prohibited as hair can contain excessive amounts of heavy metals. "This existed years ago but is rare now. Some small factories still do it illegally," Shi added.

Signs
of the crumbling economy were all around. [...] His eye caught sight of a straw man dressed in old jeans, a
T-shirt and a checked jacket propped against the wall of the Church. The
figure looked like a scarecrow, he said. Someone had sketched eyes,
nose and a mouth on his cardboard face. And as a final touch, had drawn a
tear in blue ink, trickling from one eye. On his lap was a sign, ‘No
job. Wife and kids to feed.’ Apparently, there were a few coins in a
collection bowl beside the straw figure on the pavement! [...]

After paying for the metro ticket, another item on the
government’s list for price increases, they waited for the train. With
the sound of wind rushing through the dark tunnel and headlights shining
on the tiled wall, the train arrived. However, as they got on, they saw
a straw figure seated in the carriage. It was dressed much like the
first one and also had a face made of cardboard. The sign around its
neck said: ‘Tax hikes! Give generously.’ There was a cap on the straw
figure’s lap, empty.

“Do you think there are others?” Maria said.

“Might be.”

I can just imagine Mitică shrugging and looking around, curiously.

Sure
enough, just as the escalator reached street level at Unirii, there was
another straw man propped against the window of Unirii Shopping Center,
he said. Hung around his neck was a notice,’Petrol price hike! I’m
broke’ In fact, as they looked around, they saw more and more straw
figures with signs like, ‘Can’t afford medicines,’ and ‘Loan sharks to
repay. Deep in debt.’ Not only that, they noticed large flags on roof
tops as far as the eye could see. The flags were red with a large,
yellow star in the top left hand corner, and four smaller stars in a
semi-circle around it.

“Didn’t you see ‘Enter the Dragon’ with Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan?” said Maria, in a superior tone.
“What’s that got to do with the flags?” countered Mitică.

“It’s the Chinese flag, tâmpitule!” [...]

They went into the big store at Unirii Shopping Center and
found a shop selling expensive bags. One bag, he said, was made of
crocodile skin and cost a fortune. It was on display, high up on a glass
shelf. Mitică said he was praying that Maria wouldn’t see it. But, of
course, she headed straight towards it like a guided shopping missile,
pointing.

The assistant stood on a chair and took the bag. It
seemed strangely heavy, because she struggled to hold on to it as she
got down from the chair. She handed it to Maria, who clearly loved it.
Mitică said he was getting ready to fork out an obscene amount of cash
when Maria opened the bag’s silver clasp to look inside. And that’s when
something unbelievable happened.

As she opened the bag, the
mummified fingers of a hand and then a fore-arm appeared. Maria shrieked
and dropped the bag. The fore-arm rolled onto the shop floor. Mitică
said that as God is his witness, it was a man’s fore-arm, still with
pieces of ripped and bloodied shirt sticking to it. The assistant
fainted. Then the manager appeared. Mitică said that the manager was
desperate to prevent a scandal and urged them to take the bag for
nothing. However, he made them solemnly promise they would never mention
the incident to anyone.

They left the shop in a hurry, and as
Mitică glanced back, he saw the manager dragging the unconscious
assistant to a chair while calling for a glass of water. The fore-arm
still lay on the floor. [...]

JOHOR BARU: An abandoned mansion in Jalan Skudai, here, in Danga
Bay [Malaysia], has become the centre of attention, following rumours that a 16-year-old youth is being "hidden" there by "evil entities".

Shamans and bomoh have stationed themselves outside the Villa Nabila
mansion, reciting prayers and offerings, hoping to persuade the
"entities" to release the boy.

Some 300 people gathered outside the mansion yesterday, hoping that
Mohamad Izzat Izzudin Hussin, who disappeared from his home in Kampung
Majidee here on Saturday, would be found. Prior to his disappearance, he
reportedly told friends that he was going to Villa Nabila.

The pre-war double-storey mansion with a sprawling compound had, over
the years, gained ill repute, with rumours of murders and massacres
having taken place on its grounds.

The rumours ranged from that of a young maiden named Nabila, who was
murdered and sealed in the mansion's walls by her stepmother, to the
murder of a family of five by their gardener, a black magic
practitioner. As a result, the mansion attracts occult hunters and
thrill seekers.

The news of a man who transformed into a python and swallowed a girl in
his hotel room in Molyko, Buea, spread like wildfire Saturday morning
leaving curious citizens with no option than to rush to the said hotel
(name withheld) to see for themselves the monster and its victim. The
crowd that streamed in disrupted traffic between Mile 17 Motor Park and
Molyko as they wanted to forcefully get into the hotel and get the
python killed.

The situation degenerated transforming the Mile 17-UB Junction
stretch of the main boulevard in Molyko, Buea on Saturday November 9,
into a Hollywood film scene or better still, a reminiscence of strike
scenario in the University of Buea as an angry mob of students and other
curious denizens were being prevented by security operatives from
forcing themselves into the hotel premises to see the python that is
alleged to have mysteriously swallowed a girl. The situation resulted
into an open confrontation between security forces and the crowd that
threw stones on the forces leading to untold destruction of the hotel’s
panes and cars parked in the hotel premises.

The security forces of the Buea Mobile Intervention Unit, 2nd
District Police post in Molyko and the Gendarmerie squadron fired tear
gas to disperse the crowd and restore calm and traffic flow on the
stretch. The chaos left some persons with injuries including a Police
officer of the GMI Buea who sustained a head injury from a stone. By
press time, some four demonstrators were arrested by security forces.
The Divisional Officer of Buea, Paul Wakam Kouam, the deputy State
Counsel of Buea, Magistrate John Njonjo, the first Deputy Mayor of Buea,
Emmanuel Motomby Mbome, all came to the scene to restore order.

The DO advised the crowd to retire to their homes assuring them that
nothing strange has been discovered in the hotel following an inspection
of the rooms. Earlier, the Manager of the Hotel simply described the
incident as rumour circulated by his competitors. One of the hotel staff
said the presence of a senior Police official at the hotel who was
accompanied by regional police officials for breakfast that Saturday
morning must have triggered the widespread rumours.

News spread on social networks in Saudi Arabia this week that a giant
mouse nearly one metre long had killed two babies in the Gulf kingdom.
[...]

Newspapers said the news were carried on Facebook and other social
networks in the Gulf kingdom that the giant mouse has four large teeth
with a length of around 2.5 cm each. “The news said the mouse killed two
babies,” Almadina daily said.

Saturday, 12 October 2013

A singular story of a poisoned ring appeared in the French newspapers a few years ago, to the effect that a gentleman who had purchased some objects of art at a shop in the Rue St. Honoré, was examining an ancient ring, when he gave himself a slight scratch in the hand with a sharp part of it. He continued talking to the dealer a short time, when he suddenly felt an indescribable sensation over his whole body, which appeared to paralyse his faculties, and he became so seriously ill that it was found necessary to send for a medical man. The doctor immediately discovered every symptom of poisoning by some mineral substance. He applied strong antidotes, and in a short time the gentleman was in a measure recovered. The ring in question having been examined by the medical man, who had long resided in Venice, was found to be what was formerly called a ‘death’ ring, in use by Italians when acts of poisoning were frequent about the middle of the seventeenth century. Attached to it inside were two claws of a lion made of the sharpest steel, and having clefts in them filled with a violent poison. In a crowded assembly, or in a ball, the wearer of this fatal ring, wishing to exercise revenge on any person, would take their hand, and when pressing in the sharp claw, would be sure to inflict a slight scratch on the skin. This was enough, for on the following morning the victim would be sure to be found dead. Notwithstanding the many years since which the poison in this ring had been placed there, it retained its strength sufficiently to cause great inconvenience to the gentleman as stated.

The Bureau of Surrealist Ethnology

The Bureau of Surrealist Ethnology was founded in July 2007 in Devon, UK. Our investigations encompass myth, legends, calendar customs and the ritual year, murder ballads, jokes and proverbs, dancing, graffiti, and all other outbreaks of the Marvellous in vernacular culture. This collectanea project brings together a wide range of data, from various sources, which all have one thing in common: poetry. These data in turn form the basis of our more theoretical elaborations and investigations.